Officials in Alençon are pinning their hopes on renewed interest in the town’s long history of lace-making to help keep the industry alive. The unique craft, Point-d’Alençon, was practised by up to 8,000 women in its 18th-century heyday. Today, the industry employs just six people. Concerns that the complicated technique, which takes up to a decade to master, will not be passed on to future generations have now prompted world heritage body Unesco to list Alençon needle-lace as a cultural treasure that deserves to be protected.
The town’s Socialist mayor, Joaquim Pueyo, said he hoped the global recognition for the craft would raise awareness and interest, and ensure the practice does not die with the current generation of lacemakers.
“This recognition by Unesco recognises centuries of savoir-faire developed by thousands of lace-makers, and the passion that it continues to generate, even today,” he said.
Basse-Normandie regional president Laurent Beauvais added: “I’m pleased to see a regional speciality honoured in this way. It’s a great success for the town of Alençon and without doubt it will have a positive impact on the region as a whole.”
Alençon needle-lace is unusual because of the high level of craftsmanship required and the very long time that it takes to produce. A small patch of lace the size of a postage stamp takes about 25 hours to make and sells for about €200.
The material was named the “queen of all laces” at the first Universal Exhibition in Brighton in 1851, but its history dates back 200 years before then, when a workshop was set up in the Orne town. A royal edict in 1722 gave Alençon a monopoly to supply the court of Versailles in the winter, with Valenciennes picking up the contract for the summer.
The pieces are made up of design elements held together by a finely stitched net. The process comprises a number of successive stages: drawing and pricking of the design on parchment, creating the outline of the design and the background netting, then the typical stitching of the patterns, shading with filling stitches, decorating with designs and embroidering to create relief.
Then the lace is removed from the parchment with a razor blade, trimmed and, finally, the filling stitches are polished with a lobster claw.
Each lace-maker knows how to complete all the stages of the process – knowledge that can only be transmitted through a practical apprenticeship. To master the technique fully requires seven to 10 years of training. Two new trainees were hired in the Alençon workshop last September to start their apprenticeship.
Alençon’s lace-making joins four Normandy landmarks on the Unesco world heritage list: Mont St Michel, the Bayeux tapestry, the rebuilt centre of Le Havre, and the lookout towers at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue and Tatihou.
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